Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-09
WANT RELIEF,
A Petition of the People of Hearne to the
Twentieth Legislature.

A Petition of the People OF Hearne to the
Twentieth Legislature.
To the Honorable Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the State of Texas:
GENTLEMKN-Your petitioners, who
reside at or near the town of Hearne, in
Robertson county, Tex, respectfully pray
your honorable body to enact such laws
as shall relieve them from the large and
undue proportion Of the convict force of
the state as is now employed On farms in
the vicinity of Hesrne.
Werespectfully and earnestly represent
l. That according to the penitentiary
report recently publish ID, it is shown
that out of a total of 1859 convlcts re-
ported on hand Octob, 81, 1886, but
sixty-six, or less than OIL; forty-third of
the number are from Robertson comfy.
(See exhibit No. p
.. That out OF total of 1859 convicts
on hand. l149 are leased to planters, or
worked on what are termed share farms,
on leases and contracts expiring DeCem-
Der 81, 1887. OF this number 462, or q
little less than one-siXth of the entire
convicts on hand, and over 40 per cent. of
the entire convict farm force of the
state. are on farms in the vicinity OF
Hearnc. (See page ., report of superin-
tendent, and page sc, exhibit No. 9
3. That the cOnvicts are all clothed by
the state, and are fed partly by the state
and partly by the planters employing
them, and all the clothing and all, or
neary all, Of the provisions so used, are
purchased and shipped to Hearne
FROM other points in large guam
titles, frequently in Car load lots. The
products raised on such farms are sold in
large lots mostly to foreign buyers, and
our merchants thereby deprived of the
trade Of those who cultivate some 10000
acres of the best Brazos lotion lands,
which trade would naturally and surely
come to Hearne if the plantations so
worked were tenanted by free labor.
4. That the concentration of such
large convict force in the immediate vi
cinity of Hearne has resulted in prostrat
ing and destroying a large proportion Ct
the business formerly enjoyed by the
merchants and business firms in said
town, and has, as the convict force has
from year to year been gradually but
surely increased, reduced the number of
business firms, until now ten commodious
brick store houses are tenantless, and the
mercantile business of the town reduced
to nearly one-half of what it was ten
years ago.
5. We deny "thst the other large
planters, who do not work convicts, as
well as the smaller planters in the up
lands near Hearne, prefer convicts to be
worked on these farms (the farms of
them better chance to get supply of
free labor to work their FARMS" as Ma jor
Brahan, financial agent, says in mis-
report, ne is told; and we assert that
there is not now, nor has there ever
been, any Brazos bottom land idle for
want of good tenant. On the contrary,
we know it to be true that the farms now
stocked with convicts can readily be
rented at from So to Sc per acre, or at
even higher figures than these, on the
share system. We also deny the con-
illusions of Major Brahan, that "the best
policy for the state is to renew these con-
tracts" and regret very much that this
official should have taken occasion in his
report to class as demagogues, anarchists
and communists the opponents OF convict
labor in Texas.
G. We commend to The earnest consid-
Grafton Of your honorable body the laws
passed oy the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Legislatures in reference to combining con-
victs within the penitentisry walls, and
especially invite your attention to the IN
equivocal manner in which the subject is
treated in the eleventh plank of the plat
form of the Democratic party of Texas,
as enunciated at its last state convention.
I. We would gladly pay our proportion
of the tax necessary to cOnfne all convicts
within the walls of the penitentlaries;
vet we do not know that the people of the
state as whole favor such a course. We,
therefore, pray your honorable body, if
the way be not clear to such confinement,
to make 4 more equitable distribution of
the farm-convict force of the state than
that which locates more than 40 per cent.
thereof upon this community. We be-
lieve that all counties should stand upon
the same footing in this matter, and that
none should have an immunity from this
class OF labor at the expense of another.
S. We respectfully submit, as worthy of
your consideration, the enactment of
law prohibiting or forbidding the hiring
or leasing of greater number OF convicts
than fifty in any one county. By this
means the 1900 Convicts now employed at
various occupations outside of the walls
could be distributed among tue 10 odd
counties of the state, so as not to be I'M
duly turdensome on any one community.
We also believe the penitentisry board
can readily hire cut the force of farm con-
victs at higher price than obtained at
present (S15 per month";, if the minimum
number that will be hired to any one per-
son or firm be reduced to twenty, and
that preference at the same figure will
always be given to the bidder for the low
est number. We favor a change of the
rules in this respect, and we also favor
the enactment of law that inleasing con-
victs preference shall always be given to
the bidder whose plantation is most re-
mote from any incorporated town or city.
9. We commend the suggestions made
in his report by Superintendent Goree, in
reference to regulating the number OF
acres to be worked to the convict, and as
to the distance from the prison of the
land to be worked, but suggest that a
thorough investigation of its probable
cost should be made before the state
agrees to feed convicts and guards and
allow time lost by sickness, as is sug-
gested by the same official. la reference
to the latter subject, 1t may De noted that
the financial agent says, that "the heav-
lest expense connected with the peniten-